The Fight for Forever: The Legend Trilogy, Book 3 (Legend Trilogy #3)(6)

I have to get to Bump. But Gabriel is already ahead of me. He launches himself at Bump, and I crawl to them.

A trickle of blood leaks from Bump’s temple where he holds his head. “I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m okay.” He repeats it over and over, like he’s trying to convince himself.

“You’re okay,” Gabriel says, agreeing with him. “You’re totally fine, bud. You did real good. Real fucking good.”

I pull myself together and grab my clutch where I dropped it. Yanking it open, I pull out a small packet of tissues and take them to Bump.

“Here you go. Just a little blood.”

“I’m bleeding?” His eyes go wide. “I thought I was okay.”

“You’re fine, bud. Just fine.”

A knock comes at the door, and we all freeze. Gabriel moves toward his desk, and before I have time to comprehend what he’s doing, there’s a gun in his hand pointed at the door.

“Who the fuck is it?”

“Me and Roux,” Q says from outside.

Gabriel’s chin drops to his chest, and he lowers the gun. “Get in here.”

Q opens the door, and shock rips across his face as he sees Bump on the floor with bloody tissues to his head. Then he sees the gun in Gabriel’s hand and stills. Roux barrels toward Gabriel, and he shoves the gun in his pants before giving her a pat to calm her down.

“What the fuck happened? Is he okay?”

“Moses was here. He had Bump at gunpoint. He wants his money.”

Q’s olive-toned skin goes pale. “What? How? When? Where did he go?” He whips his head from side to side, like he’s afraid Moses might still be in the room hiding, and then pulls out his cell. “I’m calling the cops.”

“No,” Gabriel barks out, shaking his head. “Shut the door and put down your fucking phone. We aren’t going to the cops with this. No fucking way.”

“What?” Surprise rips the word from between my lips. “What do you mean, we’re not going to the cops? We have to. This is literally what they’re for.”

Bump shakes his head. “Can we go home now, Gabe? I want to go home.”

“What a fucking mess,” Q says, leaning back against the door. “How the hell did he get in and out?”

Gabriel helps Bump and me to our feet. “Hidden entrance. He must have been watching us for months, or paid someone off to get the access info.”

“Fuck. What did he say?” Q scans all the faces in the room before locking on Gabriel’s again.

“He wants me to lose the fight. Wants me to throw it.”

If I thought Q’s swarthy skin couldn’t get paler, I was wrong. “No fucking way. Fuck me. What the fuck do we do now?”

Gabriel throws his arm around Bump’s shoulder and pulls me into his side. “We go home and regroup.”





The drive to Jersey is silent. Even Bump seems to realize that now is not the time for chatter. Q called in extra security and promised to come by as soon as the club closed. He tried to send Zoe home with us, but she refused to leave.

I want nothing more than to hold Gabriel’s hand, but he’s got both of them locked around the Bronco’s steering wheel. Hal follows behind us in the SUV. He agreed to work overnight, just in case.

I’m completely out of my depth. I have absolutely no idea how I’m supposed to react to everything I just witnessed. All I want to do is make it go away, which is why I offered up the money. Sure, a million and a half isn’t exactly chump change, but to protect Gabriel and Bump? I’d gladly hand it over.

But I can’t bring it up now, especially considering the way Gabriel is white-knuckling the steering wheel. He won’t be receptive to the idea . . . which is probably fair, because Moses already said he wouldn’t take my money for the debt.

Still, I’d pay a fortune to find out what’s going through Gabriel’s head right now.





Five





Legend





Moses came back.

And in keeping with his style, he didn’t do it the way I expected.

No, what I expected was a bullet to the head with no warning. Just like Jorie. But, no, he wants to make me play his game and exact his own special twisted fucking revenge.

He wasn’t fucking Jorie. There’s no goddamned way. She never would have touched him.

But, still, my brain goes back to fifteen years ago, and how fucking reluctant she was to leave town. How strangely she’d acted for months. How it had been weeks since we’d touched each other before that awful fucking day.

Did I miss it? Was her hesitation because she didn’t want to leave Moses behind? And how the fuck could his crew have killed her if she was fucking him? Not a goddamned bit of it makes sense.

I slow for a red light, grateful for the silence in the Bronco. The last thing I want to do right now is talk. Every part of me has drawn inward, until I feel like I’m suffocating on the questions running rampant through my brain.

When I finally pull up in front of the service station, Hal parks across the driveway, sideways, blocking us in. Good. If I know him, he’s got a shotgun in his SUV, and he’s not afraid to use it.

I open my door, climb out, and push the seat back to make room for Bump and Roux. I’m strangely fucking thankful that my dog apparently sneaked out of the office while Bump was watching TV. If she’d seen Moses and gone at him with those big teeth of hers, he would have shot her without blinking.